Sega shares rose 2.7 percent today to close at 1,690 yen ($14.50).. A fresh warning yesterday about slowing mobile handset sales - this time from Nokia, the market leader - couldn't dent shares in TTP Communications, the recently floated mobile phone technologist. A fresh warning yesterday about slowing mobile handset sales - this time from Nokia, the market leader - couldn't dent shares in TTP Communications, the recently floated mobile phone technologist. After all, TTP was celebrating becoming the first independent cellphone designer to launch high-speed wireless internet technology.At first glance, TTP resembles an immature version of rival semiconductor intellectual property firms such as ARM Holdings or Parthus Technologies. It sells technology licences and takes royalties on handsets incorporating its semiconductor designs.
But unlike ARM and Parthus, TTPCom's intellectual property spans entire handset designs, including embedded software.The launch yesterday of GPRS technology - which supersedes WAP - served to dismiss fears TTP was sharing the technical problems associated with GPRS reported by some rivals. TTP says nine of its customers have licensed the GPRS technology; some should be shipping phones within six months. TTP shares closed up 4p at 261.5p.The readiness of TTP's GPRS solution is reassuring. Competition is intensifying in the mobile industry; the first movers in new technology will command advantages in grabbing share. To date, the big three mobile handset brands - Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson - have shunned TTP, preferring to develop technology in-house. With TTP's predominantly Asian customers now ready to launch GPRS, it matters less that their European rivals have yet to engage TTP's services.Meanwhile, Ericsson for one is outsourcing handset manufacture - probably to companies susceptible to TTP's salespitch.Small wonder TTP is confidence it can sustain a 30-40 per cent rate of sales growth. At £589m, it is valued at 22 times Chase H&Q's forecast sales of £26.4m this year, a discount of more than 50 per cent to ARM.
Despite gaining 30 per cent this year, the shares are only 7 per cent above their issue price and have further to go.GamesWorkshopInvesting in GamesWorkshop, the fantasy boardgames company that owns the Warhammer brand, has been anything but fun lately.The former stock market darling got into difficulties in 1998, when revelations of supply problems cut its valuation by 40 per cent faster than you could say abracadabra. Last year, the firm admitted that sales of its tabletop wargames were suffering as under-11s switched their allegiance to Pokémon cards. The stock hit a five-year low of 100.5p in October, well off its 857.5p all-time high.Tom Kirby, the chairman and chief executive, says the company is fighting back. He has overseen an aggressive restructuring programme and targeted older gamers who are less taken by Pokémon.The shares jumped 20 per cent yesterday as half-year results showed pre-tax profits up 8 per cent at £4.1m, on sales up 9 per cent at £42.7m. Tough trading conditions in the UK have eased, the company said, while sales in the US are strong. Analysts forecast full-year pre-tax profits of £10m and earnings of 20p per share.The group has secured a potentially lucrative licence to produce merchandise tied to the forthcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
It is at last near to completing a revamp of its supply chain, likely to save £2m annually. The runes point to a recovery and the stock, at 185p, is worth a punt.Crest NicholsonIn five years, Crest Nicholson has transformed itself from a builder of ghastly identikit houses into what John Callcutt, its chief executive, calls a developer of imaginative large-scale regeneration schemes.The group has carved out a niche in redeveloping suburban brownfield sites, leaving city centre schemes to rivals such as Berkeley Group. It has little choice - revised planning regulations no longer tolerate the vast Barratt-style developments of yesteryear.The change of direction is paying off. Pre-tax profits jumped 20 per cent to £48m last year, Crest said yesterday. While it sold only 1,731 homes in 2000, against more than 2,400 in 1999, average selling prices shot up from £138,299 to £174,700 as the business mix shifted upmarket. Average selling prices should touch £200,000 this year.The shares have participated in the housebuilding sector's recent re-rating, prompted by perceptions that interest rates have peaked. Indeed, there appears little to go for now the stock is up 75 per cent since its October two-year low It closed up 11 per cent at 194p yesterday.
